6 Things Hugh Jackman Did To Stay In Wolverine Shape All These Years

Hugh Jackman's supposed to play a haggard, world-worn Wolverine in the latest in the X-Men franchise, Logan, but that doesn't mean he's gone full Dad bod. The man's as ripped as ever, and while studio makeup, a beard, and a limp (brought on by taping a pebble to his heel, to help him stay in character) may make him look roughly 200 years old, all it takes is his undershirt-rocking fight scenes — or turns on the red carpet — to make you wonder if the man found the real-world version of that blue "medicine" in the movie.

Here's what actually works for the actor — and the one thing he did that he says you should never try yourself.

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He Realized Results Take Time.

When Jackman signed up for the original X-Men movie, he gave himself three weeks to get in shape. Then the director saw him ... and pushed all of his shirtless scenes to the very end of the production schedule, so he'd have more time to get chiseled, the actor told Stephen Colbert. For every film since then, he's given himself three months to really hit the gym and go hard on clean eating and weight lifting.

20th Century Fox

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He Gave Up Carbs.

If you thought Tom Brady's diet was restrictive, it's nothing compared to Jackman's. For the past 17 years, the actor's eaten mostly steamed chicken, broccoli and cauliflower, he revealed during The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon. To celebrate the end of his final run as Wolverine, Fallon helped him break his fast with enough pasta to feed all of Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.

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He Went Into "Progressive Overload."

Jackman's trainer, David Kingsbury, had the actor start with lighter weights and higher reps, as he did bench presses, squats, and deadlifts, gradually increasing the weight (while reducing the number of reps) to build his strength. It's known as a progressive overload workout, and the goal is to prevent your body from plateauing after a few weeks, Men's Fitness reported.

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He Takes Push-Ups To The Next Level.

Jackman keeps his heart rate up with intense exercises that leverage his own body weight (read: no dumbbells required), like this set of 100 clap push-ups. "There's no point in just bulking up, because you've got to be functional," he told the magazine.

There's One Thing He Says You Absolutely Shouldn't Do.

And no, it's not fight Banana Wolverine, though he may not recommend that either. The biggest secret to Jackman's vein-poppingly-chiseled look involves dehydrating himself, which can be seriously dangerous to one's health. In the weeks leading up to his shirtless scenes, he'll gradually drink more and more water, getting up to 10 liters a day (about 2.6 gallons), then go without drinking a thing for the 36 hours before the scene. "You know that if you go three days without water, you die," Colbert replied, when Jackman explained this strategy on The Late Show.

"You go as close as you can, and then, and then put the claws on, dammit," he said. "But you lose like 10 pounds of all of this, water weight. Don't do it."